Radiohead … stuff

With just two weeks to go before the Furillen Radiohead weekend …

… I thought that some of you might benefit from a bit of inspiration.

So I put together some links for you to browse.

Right here is series of ‘geeky facts’ about the band, put together by NME just before the last Radiohead album – The King of Limbs – was released in 2011.

One of my favourites on that list is the review of Kid A by Mark Beaumont in Melody Maker. Giving the album 1.5 out of 5, Beaumont called it

tubby, ostentatious, self-congratulatory, look-ma-I-can-suck-my-own-cock whiny old rubbish.

I think we’re meant to snark up on Mark with the benefit of hindsight and tell him what a crap critic he is.

Not me, though.

My view is that anything that actually sounds like ‘look-ma-I-can-suck-my-own-cock’ must be …

… and Kid A most certainly is.

So … nice one Mr Beaumont, you really nailed it.

For slavish Radiohead watchers, I guess the reddit is as good as it gets.

So … here it is.

As you might expect, the Radiohead reddit is rife with speculation about the new album release date – but you’ll find lots of other ‘interesting’ threads there too, such as Need Puppy Names for a Yorkie puppy (ya know, because of Thom Yorke).

On that last one, I am so tempted to suggest they call that puppy ‘my owner is really weird’ …

… but I don’t do reddit.

For those of you who, like me, admire Radiohead’s album artwork, you might enjoy this piece, in which the artist responsible for it – Stanley Donwood, aka Dan Rickwood – talks about what he did.

I was particularly struck by what Donwood said about the difference between Kid A and Amnesiac:

Kid A was for me a fucked up phone call whereas Amnesiac felt more like someone had left a really, really long answerphone message.

I don’t know what he means, either … but that doesn’t stop me from liking it. And just look at the Amnesiac cover …

… so, Stanley … your bullshit is forgiven.

On the opposite end of the bullshit spectrum, here is Thom Yorke in a 2006 interview, telling us that he feels hypocritical playing large stadium gigs because of their environmental impact.

Asked how this conflict can be resolved, he says …

Fuck knows.

Thank you Thom. For everything.

And especially for that.

Finally – for now, at least – here is something for those of you who dislike Radiohead … although I seriously doubt that you scrolled this far down if you do.

This is what an especially charming Radioheadphobe had to say about Thom Yorke:

He’s just a strange little British man who dances like a spider monkey.

But – really – who on earth would want to argue with that …

A happy weekend to all!